BrickFair 2011 wrap up

BrickFair 2011 took place near Washington, DC this weekend. I wanted to hit up one more con before med school starts next week, so I decided to attend my first Lego convention in the Northeast and see some new people and MOCs that couldn’t make it to the other two large Lego conventions in the US: Brickworld and Brickcon.

The first thing that struck me was the enormous exhibit hall, which was about the size (and appearance) of an empty Walmart store. The next thing that struck me was the diversity of creations, including whole areas for less-commonly exhibited themes such as steampunk, post-apocalypse, even NASA. Lastly, I was amazed by the sheer number of people who showed up during the weekend public hours (above video), which turned out to be about 17,000.

I’m glad I made the decision to come to BrickFair, and I hope to do so next year as well (and perhaps have the rest of Awesometown). You can see my photos at BrickFair on Flickr or more on the BrickFair Flickr group.

With tens of thousands of dollars coming in the door, I don’t see why the talent still has to pay extra for the privilege of providing the main attraction. It’s like making the clowns buy tickets to the circus.

I guess it’s the Huffington Post model of making money off of enthusiastic free labor – and bully to the organizers who are making it pay. But it doesn’t make me want to participate.